A fest-goer stands in front of a rainbow near the Bonnaroo Mushroom Fountain at Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival in Manchester, Tennessee on Friday, June 9, 2017. Calvin Mattheis, Knoxville News Sentinel

Fate Bussey, of Lawrenceville, Georgia, claims his spot on the lawn for the U2 concert along with his brother Wells, right, and friend Ryan Campbell, far right, at Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival in Manchester, Tennessee on Friday, June 9, 2017. Calvin Mattheis, Knoxville News Sentinel

Zach Dries holds his new fiance Shelby Luck, both of Rochester, NY, after he proposed to her at the Bonnaroo Mushroom Fountain at Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival in Manchester, Tennessee on Friday, June 9, 2017. Calvin Mattheis, Knoxville News Sentinel

Zach Dries, left, and his new fiance Shelby Luck, both of Rochester, NY, kiss after he proposed to her at the Bonnaroo Mushroom Fountain at Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival in Manchester, Tennessee on Friday, June 9, 2017. Calvin Mattheis, Knoxville News Sentinel

Fest-goers check out the Youth Making Ripples booth at Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival in Manchester, Tennessee on Friday, June 9, 2017. Youth Making Ripples is involved in educating the public about keeping the oceans clean. Calvin Mattheis, Knoxville News Sentinel

Shelby Luck, left, wears the engagement ring from her new fiance Zach Dries, both of Rochester, NY, after he proposed to her at the Bonnaroo Mushroom Fountain at Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival in Manchester, Tennessee on Friday, June 9, 2017. Calvin Mattheis, Knoxville News Sentinel

The Roo Tang Chan cheer after creating a conga line from their camp to the arches at the16th annual Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival in Manchester, Tenn., Friday, June 9, 2017. Lacy Atkins / The Tennessean

Kristen Ferguson, left and Kayla Daley from Erie, PA., rest together at their campsite in group camping at the 16th annual Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival in Manchester, Tenn., Friday, June 9, 2017. Lacy Atkins / The Tennessean

Richard Stafford the founder of the Roo Tang Clan cheers to get people to join their conga line in hopes to create to longest line in Bonnaroo history at the 16th annual Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival in Manchester, Tenn., Friday, June 9, 2017. Lacy Atkins / The Tennessean

Corban Fleming, left and Richard Stafford march through group camp to the arches hoping to create the longest conga line in Bonnaroo history at the 16th annual Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival in Manchester, Tenn., Friday, June 9, 2017. Lacy Atkins / The Tennessean

Jansen Gedwed from Melborne, FL., shakes it all out in the morning yoga class at the 16th annual Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival in Manchester, Tenn., Friday, June 9, 2017. Lacy Atkins / The Tennessean

That made Bonnaroo a particularly unusual stop on the band’s current U.S. tour, in which they’re revisiting their 1987 landmark album “The Joshua Tree.” And strangely, the song arc they’ve worked out for this tour is an inspired fit for newcomers to the band.

Bono, The Edge, Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen, Jr. took the stage with literally no fanfare — no stage light directions, no introduction, no video screens. (I actually had to interrupt a conversation some fans next to me were having, telling them, "Hey guys! U2!")

People are lifted and passed along the crowd in a mosh pit as D.R.A.M. performs at the 16th annual Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival in Manchester, Tenn., Friday, June 9, 2017. Lacy Atkins / The Tennessean

A fan waves their hair to the beat during a Ganja White Knight performance at Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival in Manchester, Tennessee on Friday, June 9, 2017. Calvin Mattheis, Knoxville News Sentinel

Fans do tricks with their hoola-hoops during a Ganja White Knight performance at Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival in Manchester, Tennessee on Friday, June 9, 2017. Calvin Mattheis, Knoxville News Sentinel

And that was the norm for the first three songs: “Sunday Bloody Sunday,” “New Year’s Day” and “Pride (In The Name of Love)," all songs from the band's early years, when they, too, were in their teens and twenties.

Then, the band’s custom high-definition video screens came alive, with transfixing imagery tailored for each song of “The Joshua Tree.”

At this point, the band had the entire massive field in front of the “What” stage in sync with them, from the peaks and valleys of “Joshua Tree” tracks “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” to “Mothers of the Disappeared.”

“These songs belong to you now,” Bono exclaimed in the midst of “With or Without You.”

And man, those songs — whoever owns them — sounded fantastic, ringing out crisp and clear on the Bonnaroo grounds. And it's all the more impressive knowing that many of them were truly generated with just one guitar, one bass, one drum kit and one, um, Bono.

There's only one Bono, of course.

He punctuated these 30-year-old tunes with remarks that re-framed their focus to contemporary issues. During “Pride” — a song about Martin Luther King, Jr. — he told the audience, “"Some people may think (his) dream is dead, but not at Bonnaroo tonight...but maybe the dream is just telling us to wake up."

“One Tree Hill” was dedicated to the eldest daughter of Soundgarden’s Chris Cornell, who died last month at age 52.

“This next song is about a friend of ours that was stolen away from us far too soon, way back then,” Bono said. “And I’m sure a lot of people here at Bonnaroo have had a similar experience. Tonight, we want to sing it for Lily Cornell. Her dad had an epic heart.”

He also had the U.K.’s city of Manchester — which recently endured a terrorist attack at a concert — on his mind, as well as London.

Through an encore of post “Tree” tunes — from “Beautiful Day” to “One" — he dedicated the evening to “The rolling hills of Tennessee,"

And before they took their final bow, Bono cracked a joke he'd probably been saving for months.

“What an extraordinary thing Bonnaroo is,” he said. “Thank you for naming it after me.”